She opened the door a crack, waiting until her eyes adjusted to the light. It was now very dark outside, and the polyglot of colors, sounds, and smells of the old inn all ran together in a heady mix that felt almost of home.If one's home was the Lucky Fortune, that is. And it was not hers.She glanced about as she entered, pushing the door shut behind her. The place was under new management since she'd left, she saw.Well, she'd been gone some time. She was a touch in awe to see it still standing. And in one piece. She glanced up toward the ceiling. There sulked Agarak. She shook her head, slung her pack from her shoulders and crowded herself into a booth in a corner where she might sit and see.And order dinner.She shrugged out of her green cloak and tan robe before seating herself, leaving a simple dress of unadorned cream and brown. She ran a hand through hair an unremarkable shade of dishwater blond and road dust. She sighed. Dinner, then bath. Then see the sights.

Presently a girl came to take her order, and she was relieved to be able to secure a room. Particularly it being this busy...And she was all amazement to see the little thing having gotten so big..."Dessert?" she asked, interrupting Cerri's thoughts."I'll... have whatever your special is tonight," the bard replied with a smile. "Is your mother in charge around here?"The girl glanced up. "Yes. Why?"Cerri smirked. "Tell her to come see me when it's convenient. She owes me money."The child stood dumbfounded a moment in open-mouthed shock before nearly tripping over herself in her haste to get back to the kitchen, her cries of "Momma!" echoing off the beams.The gypsy- bard settled back in her seat and drummed her fingers upon the table, a self-satisfied grin firmly in place...

Heather stepped out of the kitchen for the second time that evening, though this time, she was taking her time and had cleaned up somewhat. She was drying her hands on a clean apron, a slight frown creasing her brow.

The woman who sat in the booth was familiar to the half-elven healer, she could not yet place a name. She strode with confidence and made a point to not rush as she plowed through her long lifetime of memories for an unpaid debt. There was none.

She had no doubt that she looked the same as she had when the woman knew her, though the all human gypsy had aged, setting her at a disadvantage. Even the Healer Links that she almost always forged when she was around people for very long (or healed them) were of no help this time.

She stopped by the woman's table. "Your face is familiar to me, though I cannot place your name." She didn't offer her hand in greeting. "I understand that you have some business with me."

As the mistress of the Inn introduced herself, Cerri allowed herself to gloat a little inwardly, though she schooled her expression to dispassionate interest.

So, she does not recognize me after all. Well and well....Cerri blessed the road dust and her own good sense for not having presented herself at her best. It would serve for this, and the prospect pleased her.

"Business indeed, Mistress Innkeeper," she replied in cool, smooth tones, taking her ease at her table. She draped an arm over the back of the little booth where she sat, her legs crossed at the knee beneath her travelling dress.

"I am come on account that you owe me some fifty-six pieces of silver."

It took the healer aback a little, being that she had no memory of any such amount. And her memory might be trusted with the least detail. She made a habit not to be indebted to any soul, having done so from her youth.

"Milady forgive me, perhaps if you acquaint me with the particulars of the transaction, I might recall there being any such matter unsettled between us."

"And five-years' interest," she added, her green eyes narrowed.

The other composed herself and set to taking the measure of this creature. The woman's cloth was poor, the accent a little on the heavy side, but she was unable to place it. Which was strange to her, as she herself had been abroad enough to be able to place an accent. She had an excellent ear for such things.

"Pray how much interest are we speaking of here?" she asked, her tones cooling to match the other's.

Her head tilted, and her eyes took on a shrewd cast. "Some forty percent."

Heather's eyes flashed. By this she knew the other was lying through her teeth. She had never entered into contract with someone which allowed them to exact such usury.

"You're lying," she stated flatly.

"It would be a crime to allow you the long use of my hard-earned coin for free," the other returned, meeting her gaze with defiant impunity.

"And I say again, I have no such transaction with you, and no such debt. I declare I have never seen you before in my life, and if you keep up this disgraceful charade I will have you tossed out on your ear!"

The other came to her feet with a dancer's easy grace, standing nose-to-nose with her adversary. "You deny a fairly contracted, witnessed and signed agreement. Upon what pretense? That you need not keep your word to a gypsy, because you declare we are all liars and petty pickpockets, and therefore you may plunder us at your whim?"

The Inn's mistress exhaled with a hiss at the shameless, brazen gall of this creature.

"Who are you?" she demanded, in tones edged with frost and steel. "I will have the name of my accuser."

The gypsy's eyes flashed green fire. "Cerridwen," she replied with a smirk. "You used to call me Cerri."

The wind rushed from her lungs as her mouth fell open with shock as the memories formed. The healer leaned against the edge of the table. "The Bard's Guild." She managed to whisper. "The gypsy girl that came for a few months, then disappeared."

She stood up straight and her voice regained it's strength. "I do remember you now. But I never entered into any sort of agreement with you. I knew you only a little then. If you are in such need of coin, I will not charge you for your stay and will give you what I can, but I will not stand for the soiling of my good name."

Cerri lifted her brow a little in amusement at the other's earnestness.

"Pish-tosh," she snorted. "I came all this way on the chance of annoying you a little, half-terrified you'd see right through the road dust and the bad accent and steal away my fun. No, friend, I don't stand in need of your hospitality, or your coin. I'm just happy to be around after so long to be annoying folk. Come sit, if you will. Tell me some of the goings-on of the old place. I am a gypsy rather in need of some news," she replied, grinning.

When the other woman's demeanor changed, Heather relaxed and even smiled a little.

"Cerri, you are a horrible little snipe for irking me so." She said as she sat down. "As to news, you have come to the wrong place. The world appears to be mostly asleep. I hear little from any of the old guard, though here in the past few months, Agarak has been stirring from time to time," she gestured to the swarming Ju-Ju Bees. "So I suspect Master Hue is roaming nearby. And tonight, this is the largest crowd I have ever seen in here since the old days of the bard gatherings. Beryl was small the last time you saw her."

The gypsy woman nodded.

"Well, she has joined the Bards officially, though she has yet to advance for we have not had a festival in a long time."

"What of the old guard?"

The healer shook her head. "I hear very little from any of them. But what of you? Surely you have been seeing much of the world?"

Cerri snorted in reply."I have seen my fill of this and every other part of the land through sixteen countries and three ship's voyages. There are folk in the world that write backwards, of all things. The sound of their talking is pretty enough, but their writing would make your eyes cross."

Her friend eyed her, the corner of her mouth turning a little in amusement. "That can surely not be all. Hast found no one to suit your fancy, these long years you're gone?"

The gypsy's brow lifted a little at it. "The stuff of bards' tales, my dear. Love found, love lost, love murdered sleeping... no, there are enough as suit me, but I suited not them. And there are more still that I suit, apparently, but suit not me. The rest of it is chiefly taken up in singing or dancing for my supper, my freedom, or both, mistaking my continence with that distiller's skill in his art, and awakening again knowing neither myself nor my surroundings..."

The healer shook her head at her friend. "The stuff of bards' tales."

The gypsy had another swallow of her ale. "Aye."

"Will you be telling any?"

Cerri glowered. "Not tonight. And not in her hearing, either," she replied, glancing at the child.

She toyed a little with the food that had been brought, nodding in thanks to the girl. Little Beryl was too well-mannered to stare, but Cerri noted how she tried not to appear to want to.

"She has grown," she conceded, shaking her head at it.

"They do," Heather returned. "So then." She sat back in her chair and eyed her friend. "You'll not be singing at all for us, then? Not anything, of so rich a tapestry of... 'experience'?" she teased, deliberately over-emphasizing the word.

Cerri shrugged. "Not all of it is worth the telling."

Heather tilted her head slightly, her green eyes dancing. "Not even the stuff of bards' tales?"

Cerri sighed. She'd been caught again. "You miss nothing," she snipped. "Thank you for reminding me, I shan't forget it so easy again."

It was Heather's turn to offer a sort of shrug, the corner of her mouth turning even more. "Most welcome."

The gypsy misliked her tone, but answered with another slow, feral grin. "I do know this lovely little ditty, though... I've only ever heard it once around here. Something about an Inn being scorched to cinders...?" She lifted an eyebrow ever-so-slightly and smirked.

The other shrugged again. "Being a gypsy, I can be bribed. My folk consider it a sort of... " she trailed off, her gaze thoughtful and distant, as she swirled the ale a little in her mug, "commission," she finished, meeting her eyes again with that same feral grin.

Heather could have slapped the smug look from her impish face, but she forbore. Of all the peoples of this middle earth, she had to have known this one...

"I offer you your skin, in a single piece, and the use of your wits as 'commission'," she stated in frosty tones, enunciating carefully.

Cerri chuckled, accepting the threat with good grace. "You've changed none at all," she declared, though with a smirk. She lifted another spoonful to her mouth again, her eyes twinkling. "Although," she continued, as she chewed thoughtfully, "I see you have found someone well able to cook. This is..." she chewed a little more before swallowing, and had another pull at her ale. "This is good."

Her companion merely sat with folded arms and regarded her coolly. "And I see you have not altered much either. In essentials, that is."

Cerri shrugged. "Not all of us have elvish charm to go with that eldritch blood of yours. I imagine you'll look twenty, and be just as strong in mind and body, until you just fall over. No, no," she waved down her friend's protest. "I wish you the best of it. We don't choose our parents." She snorted, before having another bite. "Smaug's teeth, some of us don't even know them..."

Another pause, in which the gypsy continued with her supper.

"So," she said at last, wiping her mouth with the napkin and setting it aside. "Who's your friend?"

The lady healer lifted an eyebrow and glanced over her shoulder, following the gypsy's nod.

"Over by the bar. Keeps turning around and pretending not to watch..."

Heather shifted so that she could glance to where Cerri indicated, without being obvious. "Ah. Sid. Newcomer. Been here for a couple of days now. Quiet fellow. Elven. The children have been fascinated by him."

"You are not concerned?"

"No. If he makes one wrong move, I will have new garters." She grinned at her old friend. "I usually have a sense about people, and he doesn't concern me. I'm more worried about Milla." She dipped her head in the direction of the serving maid. "I think I've put the fear of Uru into her, but an alcoholic can resist the bottle while working in such an environment for so long. I've given her a window to find other employment. I'll be talking with some folks I know about her in a day or two."

The healer stretched and there was a series of audible pops as her back realigned itself. "I shall return to chat some more in a bit. I have to get back to the kitchen until this crowd thins out." She grinned and winked at her friend. "Stews don't bubble on their own and bread doesn't bake itself."

Sid passed the whole evening alone, at the bar drinking several pints. It was hard for him to believe the magical ships and the flying bees and all. He had asked Dori about it. She had replied about some kind of a harp and someone named Hue. Things he didn't understood at all. He sat their pondering about the proceedings of the day. But he was really enjoying it.It really was after a long time that he was shocked to such an extent. But unknowingly he had exceeded his limit of alcohol consumption. The brew was slowly taking the toll on him. He was feeling drowsy and his face had turned red.

Suddenly a curious newcomer caught his attention. He saw a woman, with dust-blonde hair and poor clothes entering the inn. She was looked all around the inn and smiled, like someone travelling through the lanes of their memory.

She is not from here. A traveller? Yes.

Suddenly the woman looked up towards him. Sid immediately pulled away his face. Several minutes passed. He slowly turned his head and looked at the same spot form the edge of his eyes. The woman was telling something to Beryl. Then he saw Beryl's jaws drop. She ran away into the kitchen and in after sometime Heather came. He saw the woman eyeing him again. He turned away and sipped some more ale, pretending not to look.

That's none of my business. I should perhaps get into my room now.

But his Elvish ears caught sounds of argument which might have been unheard by a normal person. This time he didn't look. He pricked his ears and listened as hard as he could. And he got several words such as "debt", "bard", "interest" and more. He added everything he heard and came to some conclusions of his own.

But after a few moments he heard laughter! He turned back again to look both Heather and the stranger talking with happy faces. He was surprised. Suddenly for the third time, he caught the woman looking at her. He turned his head back.Enough of this! I really should leave now!

He finished his last pint and tried to get up. But the drink had been too much.He stumbled and fell flat on the floor, for the second time on the same evening!

What remained of the Ju-Ju Bee swarm made a final pass around the taproom then made a beeline for the rafters and their rainbow colored hive. A casual observer following their flight would have notice other activity going on above their heads. The tiny ships on the ceiling sea were moving.

A slight breeze wafting through the room stirred the sails of both fleets. The black sails of the Dark Fleet filled and nudged the ships across the span of painted sea. At the opposite side of the ceiling, the Swan Ships were gliding towards the center of the room. The painted waves rose and fell as sea foam graced one fluid peak after another. The ships rose and fell upon these animated waters as the wind carried them onward towards another skirmish in their endless battle.

The Swan Ships set a course to intercept the ships of the Dark Fleet and trap them in the confines of a corner. In response to the maneuver, the Dark Fleet began to lob stones at the approaching adversary. The Swan Ships changed the angle of their approach to avoid the menacing projectiles . As the hurtled rocks missed their intended target, they splashed into the painted ocean and the resultant displaced water fell down upon the crowded room below.

The splashes of falling water encouraged other precipitation. The sound of thunder echoed in the rafters. In moments, drops like from a summer shower were falling from above. It was raining inside the Lucky Fortune Inn.

After Cerri had finished and her plate was taken, she sat back with her leather-bound journal and scratched a few verses absently. She well knew what the Inn coming alive meant... she'd seen it before, and knew it to be the harbinger of the return of someone of note. The corner of her mouth turned in fond recollection. That Master Bard was songworthy himself, but others had told the tale better, and so had he. She looked up briefly to see that elvish fellow Heather had told her about trip over his own feet and try to dent the floor with his fine elvish nose.She considered it a moment, her eyes lighting a bit. She did not hear the exchange over the fellow's fallen body, but she did wonder how much it might take to get an elf to fall over. She knew them to have rather steely constitutions, and it was well-known that one might make a grand fool of oneself, challenging an elf to a game of drinks. He must have gone through half a barrel or more to be in this state.Which made her wonder what sort of elf he was, that he felt the need of such... excess. Everyone had their secrets. She filed it away for future reference.Of course, it was nigh-impossible to continue to write when the shower began. Cursing the Master Bard good-naturedly, she folded it all up and reached to pull her woolen cloak about her against the little spring shower. At least the place would get clean.

Sid woke up the next morning. He found that his head was hung up and there was much pain in there.And slowly as he recollected the memories of the past evening he was gripped with shame and panic.

I have made a fool of myself! Curse me!

He sat there on his bed for a long time, deciding what to do next. Finally he got up and went straight to the bar. It was still very early morning.Dori was in the kitchen. Beryl was yet asleep. And Heather was preparing for the day's rush. Things had gone pretty heavy since the magical beginnings inside the Inn."I err... apologies for the nuisance I have caused yesterday." His face reddened as he spoke "I was merely lost in all the magic, the like of which I haven't seen yet. So, I had no notion of how much I drank. Please accept my sincere apologies." Sid was feeling dizzy with the overwhelming headache. But he bowed and showed his regrets.

Heather grinned. "Apology accepted. But you really didn't cause any trouble." She held up an index finger in wait here gesture before disappearing into the kitchens. She returned a few minutes later with a small cup of steaming tea and a mug of coffee. "Drink the tea first, then the coffee. You probably want food first, but trust me, not this time. Breakfast after the tea and at least half the coffee."

Sid sat down at one of the central tables and drank the fluids given. One of them was a strange substance which Heather called "coffee". He had never tasted it during all his travels. But he loved it even more than the tea. And he felt his headache slowly going.

As he drank he re-visioned the past evening. Doing so he wondered where the strange woman from last night was. At the moment there was no one in the Inn. Which was really unusual, especially after looking at the clock. Sid sat perplexed but soon got immersed in the painful memories of his homeland.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of rushing horses. A lot of horses.

He rose from his seat. He suddenly was uneasy. Something was troubling him. Something hidden in a far corner in his mind.In a few moments, he could see a whole troupe of riders, fully armed approaching the inn. They stopped just at the gates and dismounted from their horses.

Sid could hear Haefa neighing wildly in the stables.

These were no men, but Elves! And more so, they dressed in a similar fashion to his.Five of them pushed through the door, rudely. Without acknowledging anyone else but Sid.

"Prince Valenar?" The Elf, who seemed like the head here, boreNS a silver locket around his neck depicting a snake eating a bird.

"Yes?" Sid replied, slowly and cautiously.

"You have been accused by His Majesty, Girnaenar of the Woodland Realm for the murder of Legomir, your cousin and kidnapping of Melmeth. His wife. You are to be arrested and presented before the King of Greenwood. Kindly comply peacefully."

Sid was left stunned. And later when he was safe, it seemed to him that what followed after this was only by his supreme reflexes.The head-elf signalled the others to arrest him. And in a flash of fury Sid ran, wing-footed to his room. Picked up his Sword Thrond and fell upon his foes.

Heather was standing by the Kitchen when this happened. She was shocked and as soon as she got that there was a massacre to follow she quickly led all the Kids into one of the top floors to hide them.By the time she returned, armed now, still trying to decide whose side she ought to be, all had ended. There stood Sid, with his bloodied blade in his hand. And seven ... eight ... nine of them dead on the floor.

"Heather! Listen!" In the moment of excitement, Sid had forgotten all his shyness, gentleness. "Listen! They ran away. But they'll be back. I must go! Now."

He again ran into his room took up all his belongings and came out in a matter of minutes. He then forced ten coins into the half-Elf's hands and grasped them."Apologies, my lady. What you heard was false. I had never killed another Elf. Till today" And then words just won't come out from his mouth. Finally, after a great effort he managed to say "I have been accused, by my uncle. Of this! I have to leave now. Go some other place. And I just want to thank you. By living here, I have been able to remember the warmness of a friendly heart. I shall never forget you, Lady Heather" Saying this he kissed her hands and went straight towards the stable. But before that, he ran back again. And hugged the half-elf. "To show that you have been a good friend to me. I think of you as a friend. All of you here. And I don't care if you do or not. Farewell Lady. I hope we meet again"

With this he went towards stable. Soon, she heard the neighing of Haefa and the sound of hooves fading.

Beryl kept Lunt in the kitchen while Willum, Heather, Dori, and Borimod cleaned up the bloody mess. Once the bodies were tied over their horses and the horses let loose to make their own way home, they scrubbed the tap room until all trace of blood was gone.

"Alright! That does it! I want a weapon's check at the door, manned at all times. Nothing bigger than a dagger comes into my inn!" Everyone looked at Heather in shock. "Willum, if you will build it, and help the boys oversee it, please? Goodnight."

Dauwna approached the inn cautiously for it looked deserted. After the troubles she had at the old Forsaken, she was being careful. Was it deserted? She pushed the door open slowly and saw a candle that was about to burn out lighting the room."Hello?"Somebody had to be around. She let the door close behind her and appriached the bar. Seemed like there had been some ruckus a long time ago, and now dust sat heavy on the bar. Dauwna looked around, then leaned against the bar and started drawing in the dust with her finger.

(OOC - Not sure if this place is active, but I just found my way back to this site after joining about 5 years ago and making two posts.)